Ex-Classmates Now True Rivals
What a difference a year makes. The 1993-94 Coeur d’Alene High School yearbook went on and on about the pending split of the school. And it waxed poetic about how CHS and the new Lake City High School would share a common theme of blue - always. The two schools still were suffering the pangs of separation last fall when they made plans to combine their senior balls. That, of course, was before the schools began beating each other’s brains out in sports and other extracurricular activities. Now, ex-teammates hardly speak when they run into each other on the street. Still, prom night at Templin’s served an important role: It brought closure to the traumatic split. Now, kids realize that the other school across town is as alien to them as Post Falls, Lakeland and Sandpoint highs.
Another white knight with feet of clay?
Was that me rolling out the red carpet for the return of Dennis Erickson? Was I one of the Northwest faithful who was willing to sacrifice his first-born for a competitive Seattle Seahawks football team? Yep. Now, I feel silly. Erickson’s conduct on and off the field this off-season is overshadowing his National Football League coaching debut. First, he was arrested for driving while intoxicated. Now, he is accused of having withheld results of positive drug tests so multiple offenders such as star Warren Sapp could play for him at the University of Miami. If those accusations are true, Erickson deserves razzberries, not huzzahs.
Greenies have earned place at fish fest
Hmmmm. Former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus is throwing a conference for the bull trout. But the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition didn’t make his RSVP list. You may disagree with environmentalists generally, but you’d think there would be a place at this table for them. After all, they’re the ones who brought the plight of big native fish to the public’s consciousness by fighting for an endangered species listing for the fish. Without the environmentalists, there would be no conference.
A clear and present danger?
The Oklahoma City bombing has spread paranoia far. Too far. Now, the feds want to eliminate five desperately needed downtown parking spaces to protect Coeur d’Alene’s small federal building. Sure, the federal building and recruiters station across the street were targets of supremacists’ pipe bombs almost a decade ago - as were two private businesses. But there’s nothing to indicate the building or people in it are in danger now. We shouldn’t overreact until we’re certain domestic terrorism is on the rise - and not the isolated act of a couple of crazies.
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